The rich man reprimanded Shen Jize severely again. Although it is not easy to beat him up, he still needs to be reprimanded.
Shen Jize knew that he had made a mistake, so he bowed his head politely and remained silent.
"You two tell me the details of what happened at that time." The rich man took a stool and sat in front of the two of them.
Shen Jize told the truth about his ankle being entangled in water plants, but he didn't mention seeing a deer, and he also vaguely mentioned the process of coma.
Lu Rong talked even more inconsequentially, humming and chirping for a long time, but he could barely understand that he and the puppy dragged Shen Jize out of the water and pushed him to the shore.
The rich man felt his hands and feet go cold, but seeing that the two children were trembling and realized their mistake, he didn't say any more, got up and went to the kitchen to make dinner.
The beating was spared, but the punishment still couldn't escape, so the two stood side by side in the yard.
Shen Jize looked sideways at Lu Rong beside him, seeing tears still hanging on his white face, and asked in a low voice, "Hey, who did you learn that trick from at the beginning? It's really good."
"what?"
"Just kidding."
Lu Rong pouted, but didn't make a sound.
Shen Jize laughed: "You change your face very quickly."
"You change your face quickly. You started saying that I am your brother, but now it is."
Shen Jize said: "Then I'll change my words and call you brother?"
"It doesn't sound good, call me by my name."
"Lu Rong?"
"Um."
Shen Jize looked at Lu Rong from the side, seeing his smooth face, pointed nose, long eyelashes stained with tears that were still wet, clumped into clusters.
With a sudden movement in his heart, he said, "I call you Hairy."
Lu Rong lowered his head and pulled at the corner of his clothes, and whispered back: "Okay."
"Then you will call me brother from now on." Shen Jize coaxed.
"Brother." Lu Rong called out without being awkward at all.
Shen Jize was a little happy, but a little dissatisfied: "Don't call me brother like that, but call it like you started calling grandpa, with a long and curved sound, and listen to it again."
Lu Rong turned his head and ignored him.
The two stood without speaking, listening to Mr. Cai busy in the kitchen, Shen Jize recalled the beginning of drowning, thinking about the little white deer.
He wanted to ask Lu Rong if he had seen the deer, but when he turned around, he was staring at the root of the big banyan tree in front left, with a very focused expression, his round eyes unblinking.
"What are you looking at?" he asked curiously.
Lu Rong whispered, "I'm waiting for the ants to fight."
Shen Jize also looked there, only to see a group of ants hurrying to and fro, no one was fighting.
Lu Rong said seriously: "Look at the two in front, they will stop every time they meet, they face each other, they are probably arguing, and they will fight soon."
Shen Jize laughed secretly, and said: "You read it wrong, they are greeting each other, and every time they meet, the younger one will call out: Brother~"
He imitated Lu Rong's accent, prolonging his pronunciation, and finally turned a corner.
Lu Rong didn't make a sound, just turned his head and glared at him.
The child's eyes are big and round, black and white are distinct, and this stare is also softly smiling.
Shen Jize looked at the nest of ants with a smile, and suddenly forgot to ask Xiaolu about it.
The two of them stood there until Cai Ye prepared dinner and put it on the table.
Dinner is mung bean porridge and egg pancakes, as well as a plate of pickles and bacon. The rich man took a piece of lean bacon for each of them, and said, "If you two sneak into the river again, you will be beaten and not given any food."
Shen Jize bit the bacon and vaguely promised: "Grandpa, I will never swim in the river alone."
After what happened today, he was really scared, and he might not dare to swim again for a long time.
But he won't say that.
After dinner, the two went to watch cartoons.
Shen Jize didn't like to watch the cartoons played by CCTV, and felt that cats and dogs were too naive, so he had nothing to say to Lu Rong.
But Lu Rong watched very attentively, his mind was all on the TV, and only occasionally agreed with um huh.
Shen Jize was a little bored, thinking of the little deer in the water, not sure if it was a hallucination or real, he wanted to ask Lu Rong again.
Before he could speak, the ending song of the animation sounded, and Lu Rong, who was sitting upright, jumped up and made the same movements as the cat and dog in it.
— Clenching a fist in front of his chest with one hand, and raising the other hand high, with a serious face, he sang along in a serious manner.
Shen Jize suddenly lost interest in chatting with him. After all, I am still young, too naive, and there is a gap in communication.
I miss Xiao Yong so much.
Before nine o'clock in the evening, the rich man asked the two of them to take a bath and go to bed. Shen Jize went into the bathroom, and Lu Rong was washing in a large wooden basin by the laundry table by the yard.
Shen Jize came out after washing, and found that Lu Rong was still washing, sitting naked in the wooden basin, and saying hello to passing villagers.
"Lu Rong, are you washing your armor?"
Shen Jize knew that armor means dirt.
"I'm clean, I don't have armor, I'm washing incense." Lu Rong wiped his belly with a small towel, and replied loudly.
The rich man came out with a dry towel, urging: "It's alright, alright, the water is cold."
Lu Rong stood up from the water with a splash, and stretched out his arms so that Mr. Cai could wipe the water.
Cai Ye wiped his hair first, and then his body. Lu Rong's body was swaying, his wet hair was sticking out, and another strand was hanging down, resting on his forehead.
"Grandpa, take it easy, my stomach is turning red." Lu Rong complained.
Cai Ye relaxed his movements: "Yes, yes, you are the most delicate, you are more delicate than that little green onion."
"I can't be just a little green onion."
Shen Jize watched Lu Rong put on the plastic slippers again, and ran towards the house, and suddenly felt that he should be more delicate.
Xiaoniancong, and myself and Xiao Yong, are fundamentally different species.
When Shen Jize entered the room, Lu Rong put on his underpants, was wrapped in that towel, and was rolling around on the bed.
"Sleep well, what are you doing wrapped up in the quilt? Brother Ozawa is going to sleep too." The rich man scolded.
Lu Rong took out half of the towel and watched Shen Jize go to bed, and the rich man was about to go back to his small room.
"Ozawa, do you want to turn off the lights?"
Before closing the bedroom door, he held onto the light cord and hesitated for a second. Shen Jize was shocked last night, and he might want to sleep with the light on tonight.
"Close it, or it will be too dazzling."
With Lu Rong by his side, Shen Jize was not afraid at all.
Turning off the light, Lu Rong was embarrassed to ask Shen Jize to perform a bedtime ritual for himself, rubbing his ears, scratching his back, and tossing and turning.
Shen Jize lay on his side, staring at the moonlight coming in through the window, and remembered the scene in the water again.
—The whole body of the little deer is white, but the four hooves are like blooming flames. It treads water towards itself.
"Furry, did you see a deer when you dragged me out of the water today?" he asked.
Lu Rong suddenly stopped rolling, as if someone had pressed the pause button.
Shen Jize turned over and said softly, "I'll tell you a secret."
Lu Rong stared at him, breathing a bit short of breath, and said softly after a while: "I don't like to hear secrets."
Shen Jize ignored him, and said to himself: "Last night I dreamed of a white deer that would dance to me, but today when I was submerged in the water, I saw it again."
Lu Rong held his breath again for an instant, clutching the towel and quilt tightly with both hands.
Shen Jize didn't notice his strangeness, and thought deeply: "I'm a little strange, I can't tell whether it's a dream or real, because you know dreams, the next day the memories are very vague, but this is different, that little deer I remember the two potatoes on the head very well."
After finishing speaking, he asked Lu Rong: "What do you think? What's going on here?"
"The one on the head isn't a potato, it's a horn." After a long while, Lu Rong made a sound, and his voice was a little tight.
Shen Jize said, "I know, but the corner looks like a potato."
He bumped Lurong again with his shoulder: "Rongrong, have you ever heard of anyone nearby seeing a deer demon? Or other monsters?"
Lu Rong pulled the towel up quickly, and got into it all by himself, saying in a low voice, "I haven't heard of it, there is no deer demon, and there are no other monsters."
"Think about it, really—"
"Sleep, grandpa won't let us talk, we need to go to bed quickly." Lu Rong interrupted him, sounding unhappy.
"Tch, what a child."
Shen Jize complained dissatisfiedly, so he had no choice but to stop continuing the topic, and pulled up the towel to cover him and closed his eyes.
Hey, I miss Xiao Yong who has a common language so much.
Lu Rong curled up under the towel and didn't fall asleep. When he used to dream, Uncle Bai would appear in the dream and take him out. Later, let him search for the light group that went out alone. If he can't find it for a long time, he will be given hints and guidance.
It's just that Uncle Bai hasn't appeared in the dream for a long time, and only his breath can be recognized. Other than that, I haven't met anyone else.
Neither Wang Tu nor Cai Ye had any.
He had already felt that it was not a dream, and meeting Shen Jize this time confirmed his idea.
After all, who can get into other people's dreams
The child didn't think too long either, he fell asleep quickly. When he noticed another change around him, he woke up instantly and opened his eyes.
It is now in the afternoon, the sun has not yet set, and the layers of clouds are like the scales of golden carp. He was wearing day clothes, standing in a valley surrounded by mountains, with only one path out of the valley in front of him.
The valley is very quiet, the birds chirp from time to time, Lu Rong has long been accustomed to suddenly falling into a dream, and quietly walked along the mountain road.
Although he no longer thinks that this is a dream, he is not panicked, as long as there is a way, he can always find a light cluster to get out. What's more, he felt Uncle Bai's breath again in this strange scene.
It's just that the happiest thing is to become a deer and run while eating.
Shorts and a yellow undershirt fell to the ground, and a small white deer stood between a pair of plastic sandals.
The little deer sat down, stretched its hind hooves, used its front hooves to pack the shorts and sandals into the undershirt, tied them in knots, and put them around its neck.
The movement is very flexible. If you look at it from behind, you will never think it is a deer.
Lu Rong put his bag of clothes on his shoulders and began to trot forward, tapping his hooves on the solid dirt road, and turning his head from time to time to bite a few pieces of the tenderest leaves in his mouth.
After running for a while, the sun set, and the surrounding area was covered with twilight. There were scattered houses in the distance, which seemed to be a village.
Lu Rong ran faster, and the light clusters that he didn't see all the way out were probably in the village. But he didn't change back, because many experiences told him that the village was also empty and there would be no one there.
— There are no mice, at most there are a few birds in the sky.
At this moment, he suddenly noticed something unusual, and it seemed that something was different from before.
He stopped running slowly, stood still on the road, with his ears upright, vigilantly paying attention to the movement around him, and his moist, dark nose was also sniffing in the air.
In the instinct of a small animal, he suddenly felt uneasy, as if there was a hidden danger ahead, which made his heart beat inexplicably, and he didn't want to go on.
Looking at the village ahead, Lu Rong hesitated. But if you don't continue, how can you find the light group that went out
He circled around the spot a few times, scratched the ground with his hoof anxiously, stared at the village in the distance for a while, and finally set off on the road in small steps.
He ran very slowly, lifting his hooves lightly, with only a rustling sound.
Lu Rong's mind is in a mess, there are no monsters in that village... But then he thought, isn't he a monster in the eyes of others
Thinking of Shen Jize's sentence about deer demon, he was suddenly a little unhappy.
But he belongs to Monkey King's group, not a monster.